Stronger Tenge Cools Demand for Cash Dollars in Kazakhstan

In March, Kazakhstanis bought 106.6 billion tenge more in cash dollars at exchange offices than they sold, according to National Bank data. That was 21.7% less than in February, Orda.kz reports. On the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, the dollar weakened by 4.3% in March.

In February, the volume of net dollar purchases by the public totaled 136 billion tenge, and in January it was 150.3 billion. These figures are significantly below the levels seen at the end of last year, when net purchases reached 322.8 billion tenge in December and 234.7 billion in November, but they are still higher than a year earlier. In March 2025, net purchases of cash dollars at exchange offices amounted to 73.9 billion tenge.

Interest in cash dollars has been declining since the beginning of the year against the backdrop of a stronger tenge. Last year, however, the trend moved in the opposite direction. After hitting a low point in September, net purchases steadily increased through December, even though the U.S. currency was also weakening.

At the same time, demand for cash rubles increased. In March, net purchases amounted to 7.4 billion tenge, seven times more than in February, when purchases exceeded sales for the first time in 15 months. In March, the tenge strengthened against the ruble by 9.3%, to 5.84 tenge per ruble. The Russian currency later recovered and at the time of publication was trading at 6.15 tenge. This means Kazakhstanis were buying rubles when they had weakened against the tenge.

Demand for the euro also rose slightly from the February level and continued its upward trend: net purchases reached 12 billion tenge, compared with 10.5 billion in February and 8.3 billion in January. Even so, these volumes were still below the levels seen at the end of last year, when net purchases totaled 14.2 billion tenge in November and 14.7 billion in December.

Original author: Alexey Afonsky

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